UPDATE 1-Vitol, Atlas buy Petroplus Swiss plant

May 03, 2012|Reuters

* Petroplus co-founder Van Poecke teams up with Vitol

* Plant will operate as a refinery

* Sale shows traders' hunger for assets

By Emma Farge

GENEVA, May 3 (Reuters) - Vitol, the world's largest oiltrader, has teamed up with the co-founder of Petroplus, MarcelVan Poecke, to buy the insolvent refiner's Swiss plant, as partof the trader's drive to expand into physical assets.

Varo Holding SA, the joint venture between Vitol and VanPoecke's AtlasInvest, agreed to buy the Cressier plant onWednesday and will complete the transaction by the end of June,Petroplus administrator Wenger-Plattner said on Thursday.

The 68,000 barrel per day plant will resume activities afterthe handover is completed, it added, ruling out the prospectthat the plant will be converted to storage.

Vitol has previously expressed interest in buying Petroplusassets in the UK and Germany as part of a growing hunger amongtrading houses to acquire physical assets as trading profitssuffer and stricter derivatives regulations loom.

"(This transaction) provides us with access to a quality,niche refinery and a supply chain of storage assets andwholesale marketing opportunities and will become a valuablesource of growth for the Vitol Group," said Vitol's ChiefExecutive Ian Taylor.

A spokesman for Vitol declined to comment on the sale price.

Swiss-based trader Gunvor said on Thursday it had completedthe acquisition of Petroplus' Antwerp plant in Belgium and wouldrestart the unit in the next few days after a four-month outage.

Marcel Van Poecke, who founded Petroplus in 1993 and oversawits operations for 13 years, has also been involved in offeringa temporary lifeline to Petroplus' Coryton plant in Britain.

His company AtlasInvest holds stakes in oil and gas operatorOranje-Nassau Energie, downstream market player North Sea Group,midstream oil company Hestya and market data provider EnergyIntelligence.

The sale of Cressier, which employs around 250 people andwas the least profitable Petroplus plant in the third quarter oflast year, will likely come as a relief to Swiss authorities.

Two Swiss-based industry sources said they were approachedby authorities and asked to submit a bid for the plant.

"It's an expensive plant to run since it has such a longpipeline. It's tough in a backwardated market," said a seniorsource at a Swiss trading house.

Varo's main rival for the Cressier plant was former Russianenergy minister Igor Yusufov via his investment arm Fund Energy,according to a source familiar with the negotiations.

Landlocked Switzerland has only one other refinery, theCollombey plant, owned by Libyan-controlled Tamoil.